A former Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office captain has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting an assault on a pre-trial detainee at the Iberia Parish Jail in 2011. 

According to a prepared statement from U.S. lawyer Alexander Van Hook, Mark Frederick was a captain at the IPSO and served as the assistant warden at IPJ on Sept. 27, 2011, when a pre-trial detainee known as E.M. resisted deputies at the IPJ. 

E.M. was restrained and removed from the scene, and Frederick and other senior IPSO staff agreed to retaliate against E.M. by taking him to the chapel and assault him. According to the statement, the chapel was not covered by the jail’s video surveillance. 

According to the statement, Frederick went to the chapel with the unlawful intent to beat E.M. in retaliation for E.M.’s previous altercation with jail deputies. Inside the chapel, officers assaulted E.M. while he was handcuffed, compliant, and not posing a threat to anyone. One officer took a baton, placed it between E.M.’s legs and in a sharp motion, raised the baton into E.M.’s testicles hard enough to knock E.M. off of his feet and to inflict pain. 

Hook said Frederick recognized that he had a duty to intervene and stop the unjustified use of force on inmate E.M. Nevertheless, Frederick willfully chose not to intervene to stop the beating, despite having the opportunity to do so.

“Individuals incarcerated in jails have the right to be free from unjustified assaults by corrections officers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division in the statement. “We will continue to vigorously prosecute officers who abuse their authority and violate their oath of office and federal law by assaulting inmates in their custody.”

Frederick, who is 47 and lives in St. Martinville, will be sentenced by U.S. District Court

Judge Donald Walter at a later date.

This case was investigated by the Lafayette Resident Agency of the FBI, and was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Tona Boyd of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Mudrick of the Western District of Louisiana.